Monthly Archives: December 2010

A lot of great things happened in local music this year, but you
won’t be reading about them in this post. Don’t worry all you peppy
optimistic scene supporters, there will be a year-in-review post
recapping all that was good in Seattle music in 2010. And lucky for
all of us in Seattle, there was a lot more good than bad in the
Emerald City’s music scene.

Unfortunately, you have to take the good with the bad so in this
space we’ll be taking a light-hearted look at some of the lamer
events of 2010.

Soundgarden
reunitesOMG! Soundgarden is reuniting! Wait,
they’re only playing three shows this year and only one of those is
in Seattle? And it’s at the Showbox, which has a capacity of around
1,000? And tickets are only available through a fanclub email
system that’s going to screw thousands out of a chance to see the
band by sending them an email to buy tickets hours after the show
has already sold out ? Man, I guess I should consider myself
very lucky.

Buffalo Madonna at CHBP 2010.
Photo by Jason Tang

Mad Rad behaves Okay, so it’s not a bad
thing that P Smoov, Terry Radjaw, Buffalo Madonna and DJ Darwin
behaved themselves this year. I imagine avoiding trouble with the
law helped the foursome produce the great party album with killer
beats that is
The Youth Die Young. But seriously guys, we expect to
hear of something along the lines of Buffalo Madonna
starting a brawl at a frat house or P Smoov smacktalking a bathroom
attendant at the Westin in 2011. The local music media needs you to
stay in the headlines for all the wrong reasons so they can try to
maintain relevancy while still getting their
valuable page views. So get your shit together guys and
start getting arrested or something already.

Ear Candy shut down
Disappointment was about the twentieth stage of grief for me when I
got a cease and desist order from a major corporation
demanding I shut down the blog and website I used to operate called
Ear Candy due to possible trademark infringement. It came right
after the angry “I’m getting a lawyer and fighting those bastards”
stage and right before the accepting “Oh shit, I’m totally going to
lose this fight” stage. Fortunately the death of Ear Candy
gave birth to Guerrilla Candy, so at least there’s that.

Go! Machine cancelledLast year was a banner year
for local hip hop and it was capped off by the fantastic
two-night party that was Go! Machine at the Crocodile. Just
about every big name in 206 hip hop this side of Blue Scholars was
a part of the festivities. But organizers weren’t able to pull a
repeat this year, which may or may not have been a result of the
scene reaching its peak in 2009. However, it’s looking like
that’s not the case if you consider the anticipation for
Shabazz Palaces’ Sub Pop debut in 2011 and the rise of Macklemore
in 2010.

One Reel layoffsOne
Reel, the company that produces Bumbershoot, laid off
eight of its 14 festival staff in October. What does all of
this mean for 2011 and the 41st installment of Bumbershoot? Guess
we’ll have to wait for Labor Day weekend to find out.

When I look back at all of the wonderful shows I was lucky
enough to attend in 2010 it seems pretty clear that it was a
great year for concerts in Seattle. From big names like Arcade
Fire, Gorillaz and Muse coming to town to festivals like
Bumbershoot attracting music fans young and old to see the likes of
Drake, Bob Dylan and Weezer, in my book there was no better place
to be than in Seattle for concerts in 2010.

With so many amazing concerts to choose from I’m surprised I
somehow managed to narrow down my list of favorite concerts of the
year to 15. Not surprising is that 11 of my 15 favorites were from
local artists big and small. Here are my favorite shows of the
year in chronological order with a one-sentece
summary for each :

The Seattle music scene had quite a good year in 2010. This
meant there wasn’t a shortage of topics, or news items, for
chroniclers of the scene like us here at Guerrilla Candy to write
about. From Shabazz Palaces making an unforgettable public
debut at Neumos to the hype-heavy Head and the Heart winning over
thousands of fans, there was rarely a dull week of 2010 for
those invested in the local music scene. So in case you weren’t
paying attention, here’s a recap of the year that was for Seattle
music:

Shabazz Palaces at CHBP 2010
Photo by Jason Tang

Jan. 01: Soundgarden announces reunion
plans Okay, so it was officially announced on Dec.
31, 2009 via Chris Cornell’s Twitter, but the old media folks are
slow to pick up on this whole social networking thing (it’s a fad,
right?) and nobody pays attention to the news cycle around the
holidays anyawy.

My pals at Sound on the Sound introduced
the blogsphere (and in turn KEXP and the rest of the local
music community) to this group whose beautifully poetic folk took
Seattle by storm in 2010. From opening for Vampire Weekend to
opening
and sort of touring with Dave Matthews to a massive
article in the Seattle Times, this is a band to watch for in
2011.

Mat Wisner and Brandon Jensen built a name for themselves as a
solid team of remix artists by putting their own spin on tracks by
Blue Scholars (listen below), Mad Rad, Metric and others. They also
managed to create quite a fantastic debut album
in Letters and land spots on bills that will get them
noticed, including a slot at Mad Rad’s album release show last
earlier this month. Hopefully more remixes, shows and music will
come from VCC in 2011.

Sol, or Solzilla as he is sometimes known, has been working his
grind all year long while coming into his own as a MC.
The Dear Friends II EP (which you can get for free) shows lots
of potential for this young and talented artist and his latest
release, the track “Feed My Ego” (listen below), shows that his
talent is continuing to evolve. Sol seems to continually tease his
fans on Twitter and Facebook by mentioning collaborations with
other artists and the prospect of new music so here’s to hoping
he’ll deliver on his promises soon.

Shop local is a common phrase heard this time of year to
encourage holiday shoppers to support local businesses. While
you’re supporting local businesses you might also want to consider
supporting local artists, especially if you’re picking up something
for the music lover on your shopping list.

Since it’s no secret that Seattle’s music community is stacked
with an abundance of talent here are some recommendations of
records released by locals in 2010 to help you get going if you’re
looking to live out that shop local mantra to its fullest.

The city’s youthful hip-hop scene continued to grow this year
with several excellent albums any hip-hop head would appreciate.
For starters there’s Jake One and Freeway’s The
Stimulus Package which pairs local producer extraordinaire Jake
One with Philadelphia underground rapper Freeway resulting in some
of the best hip-hop of the year. You also can’t go wrong with
Macklemore’s reissue of his Vs EP. The reissue includes
the original EP along with remixes and unreleased tracks. You can
legally download the original for
free here if you want a sampling of what the reissue has to
offer. Another choice for the more aggressive and bratty hip-hop
fan is Mad Rad’s The
Youth Die Young. Think License to Ill era Beastie
Boys with more sexually explicit lyrics. Parents be warned, there
is quite a bit of objectionable language on the Mad Rad record.

The city’s folk scene is picking up steam too and it spawned
several amazing albums. The band that made the biggest splash in
the scene this year was the Head and the Heart, which made its
debut this year. There’s plenty of local hype behind these guys
(not every new band gets a
massive feature in the Seattle Times) and big things are
expected from these Sub
Pop signees. Another artist expected to have a big 2011 is
Chris Mansfield, aka Fences, who has drawn
comparisons to Elliott Smith with Fences’ self-titled debut.
Also of note from the folk scene isTidelands, the
sophomore effort from the Moondoggies. The campfire rock featured
on that album is some of the best music Seattle had to offer in
2010.

If there is a punk rock fan on your list there is a trio of
albums you should be on the lookout for at the record store. First
there’s Unnatural Helpers’ Cracked
Love and Other Drugs which boasts a track list of 15 blazing
songs that play out in a fiery 27 minutes. The band is a modern day
punk rock Mudhoney. On the more experimental side of the punk
spectrum is The Lights’ Failed
Graves, an album that mishmashes rock subgenres and blends
them into an excellent stew of punk rock potpourri. Somewhere in
the middle of those two lay The Cute Lepers and their
album Smart
Accessories which at times comes across as a new-wavey Ramones
record.

Looks like the first small details of how Pearl Jam plans to
celebrate its 20th anniversary next year (outside of
releasing a live album) are beginning to slowly be
revealed.

According to the band’s longtime manager Kelly Curtis the band
is planning a festival to be held “somewhere in the middle of the
country” during the summer of 2011.

Curtis mentioned the news of a Pearl Jam festival on Pearl Jam’s
Sirius/XM Radio program. Unfortunately he did say the festival is
being planned for a location that is not Seattle. However, knowing
Pearl Jam and its love for its hometown there will be some
celebrations happening locally. Hopefully that means something
similar to this
pipe dream of a festival proposed by a member of the Ten Club
message boards.

While no details of the festival are known, one thing is for
sure: 2011 will be a big year for Pearl Jam.

According to the British rock rag NME
the new album from metal legends Anthrax will include a cover of
Alice in Chains’ “We Die Young.”

The album, which is expected to be released next year and is
tentatively titled Worship Music, will also include former
Anthrax frontman Joey Belladonna. It will be Anthrax’s first album
since 2003 and its first with Belladonna since 1990.

The documentary Malfunkshun: The Andrew Wood Story will
be released on DVD March 15, 2011 by Universal Music Enterprises
packaged along with two CDs of music written by Wood, including
unreleased Malfunkshun material.

The film is a look into the life of Mother Love Bone frontman
Andrew Wood and it includes live footage from both MLB and
Malfunkshun, the band he was in with his brother Kevin prior to
joining Mother Love Bone. There are also interviews with grunge
figures including Chris Cornell, Stone Gossard, Jack Endino and
other details about Wood and his impact on local music.

Although it has a tragic ending (Wood died of a drug overdose in
1990 and the film begins with his father reading his eulogy at
Wood’s funeral) it shines a mostly positive light on Wood’s life.
Aside from concert footage and hearing Cornell, Gossard and others
talk candidly about Wood, highlights include seeing Mother Love
Bone in the studio and getting a glimpse into the glam rock side of
Wood. Most all grunge enthusiasts will especially enjoy
watching Wood work with a group of children while recording
“Stardog Champion”

The film has only been shown publicly twice. It debuted at the
Northwest Film Forum in 2005 and was screened at Hard Rock Seattle
earlier this year. It’s on par with Hype and Tad: Busting
Circuits and Ringing Ears as one of the best documentaries focusing
on the local scene I’ve watched.

If you’re a local music fan then you already know the story of
the Posies. The band got big in the early 90s during the
heyday of grunge, released a few classic power-pop albums which
weren’t grunge at all — including one of my
favorite records of all-time, oh and Dear 23,
Failure andAmazing Disgrace aren’t too shabby either —
and in 1998 the band broke up with principal players Ken
Stringfellow and Jon Auer going their separate ways to pursue solo
careers and other artistic endeavors.

Twelve years and two albums later (the band reunited in 2005 and
released the comeback album Every Kind of Light) The Posies
are back and touring behind one of their strongest efforts to date.
Released earlier this fall, Blood/Candy is the band’s
most pure pop album and it is winning over Posies purist like
myself as well as appealing to a new fanbase. At the core of
the Posies is the friendship between Auer and Stringfellow. The two
have known each other since childhood and if the beauty
of Blood/Candy is any indication of where their
friendship stands, Auer and Stringfellow’s relationship is stronger
than ever.

Saturday at Showbox at the Market the band concludes its busy
year during which they debuted Blood/Candy at
the Crocodile in April, performed at the Sasquatch!
Music Festival in May and recorded and released the new album.
At the show Stringfellow and Auer will be performing double duty,
serving as both the evening’s headliners as well as members of the
backing band for opener Brendan Benson whom Stringfellow and Auer
struck up a friendship with during a benefit for the late Alex
Chilton of Big Star, a band both Posies served as members of late
in Chilton’s career.

I talked with Auer and Stringfellow separately during a tour
stop in Washington, D.C. and here are a few excerpts from our
conversations: Continue reading →

MTV’s $5 Cover: Seattle, the pseudo-reality film that
depicts the local music scene, will be released online Dec. 15.

Directed by Lynn Shelton, the 12-part web series follows 13
local bands during a scripted series of events that take place
during a weekend in Seattle. While the film was scripted the events
were based off real life experiences. $5 Cover: Seattle
made its debut at SIFF Cinema in March (read
my impressions here) and was originally scheduled to be
released in June.

Clocking in at about an hour in length the film features several
notable local bands including THEESatisfaction, The Lights,
Champagne Champagne and the Maldives. While the film focuses on
several local bands the main story centers around the
Moondoggies.

A separate series of shorts about various aspects of the local
music scene called “Amplified” were also shot as part of $5
Cover: Seattle. No word on whether they will be released Dec.
15 as well. Update: There will be more than 60
behind-the-scenes features and video clips, including the
Amplified series, released on Dec. 15 as well. The
Amplified short about the Moondoggies is below.